Monday Pre-market US: Key News & Data

Bloomberg:- Wal-Mart Stores(NYSE:WMT) said March same-store sales in the US rose about 1.3% as customers curtailed spending because of higher fuel costs and a later Easter.- President Bush renewed his push for making his first-term tax cuts permanent and said Democrats who oppose the move would weaken the US economy.- Alcatel SA(ALA) agreed to merge with Lucent Technologies(LU), creating a company with a combined market value of $36 billion to compete with Ericsson AB(ERICY) and Cisco Systems(NASDAQ:CSCO).- The Bank of Japan may keep interest rates low “for a long time